#PCZambia

[itstimeforafrika]

Playlists to get you through Valentines Day in the vil

Hey! So in honor of valentines day I made two music playlists from my Ipod for ya'll . First one is a collection of songs that have nothing to do with love/relationships, in case, like me you find yourself dateless, optionless,  crushless,  and hundreds of kilometres from anyone you fibd attractive. 1. Ain't it Fun - Paramore 2. Bad Moon Rising - Creedence Clearwater 3. Be As You Are - Mike Posner 4. Chandelier - Sam Tsui Cover 5. Cheers - Rihanna 6. Dancing in the Dark - Rihanna 7. Downtown - Macklemore 8. Eleanor Rigby - Beatles 9. Everywhere I Go - Lissie & Ellie Goulding 10. Formation - Beyoncé 11. Guns For Hands - Twenty One Pilots 12. Heathens - Twenty One Pilots 13. I See Fire - Jasmine Thompson Cover 14. I Took A Pill I'm Ibiza - Mike Posner 15. My Band - D12 16. New Americana - Halsey 17. No Diggity/Thrift Shop - Kygo 18. One Dance - Drake 19. People Help The People - Birdy Cover 20. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster the People 21. Pursuit of Happiness - Lissie cover 22. Requiem For A Dream Theme Song 23. Rock & Roll - Avril Lavigne 24. Royals - Lorde 25. Run the World - Beyoncé 26. The Sound of Silence - Disturbed cover 27. Stand - Rascal Flatts 28. Stressed Out - Twenty One Pilots 29. Take it Off - Ke$ha 30. Wild Things - Alessia Cara Second one is a collection of TITLES I feel appropriately sums up my love life this valentines day. 1. Anything But Ordinary - Avril Lavigne 2. Blank Space - Taylor Swift 3. Call Me Hopeless, But Not Romantic - Mayday Parade 4. Creep - Scala & Kolocny Cover 5. Dancing On My Own - Calum Scott 6. (No) Dignity - New Politics 7. Everybody's Got Somebody But Me - Hunter Hayes 8. Someday You Will Be Loved - Death Cab For Cutie 9. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap 10. Incomplete - Backstreet Boys 11. Love Drought - Beyoncé 12. Love Yourself - Justin Bieber 13. Mad World - Twenty One Pilots cover 14. Make it to Me - Sam Smith 15. Ode to Sleep - Twenty One Pilots 16. Sappy - Say Anything 17. Pursuit of Happiness - Lissie Cover 18. Sound of Silence - Disturbed cover 19. Story of My Life - Lissie Cover 20. Stupid Love Letter - The Friday Night Boys If you're still reading I wanna say that despite not having personal relationship I do love all my friends and family who have stuck with me during this hard (but rewarding) time. I'm sitting down to a nice pasta dinner by candlelight with a chocolate bar for dessert. Too bad I finished my wine a few days ago... cheers anyway everyone!

[zanyinzambia]

Wondering why I haven’t been posting anything lately? Check out The Post, a Zambian newspaper to tell you what’s been going on.

Besides the usual reasons (i.e. no time to write, laziness, getting distracted while the wifi is available) Zambia is experiencing load shedding due to low water levels in the Kariba Dam, Zambia’s main source of hydroelectric power and electricity in general. It’s having huge consequences on Zambia’s economy and the Zambian kwacha is now around 10 ZMW =1 USD. We experience up to 12 hours a day of power outages (usually 8 hours is the standard in Choma) in town and it’s even worse in the capital, Lusaka. Businesses, factories, and mines have slowed production or shut down completely. Zambia may even reach full black out by November which will have some interesting social effects and detrimental economic consequences on the country. Coupled with low rainfall last year, predicted low rainfall next year and the price of maize soaring, this is going to be a tough year for Zambia. Or, more likely, at least 2-3 tough years for rural and urban Zambians alike. It’s difficult to watch the many side effects of load shedding: local businesses closing, food prices soaring, and the increased use of charcoal (and therefore deforestation) in town for cooking since natural gas prices continue to rise and demand increases. Despite these hardships, Peace Corps Zambia will remain in country unless social unrest becomes too rampant- which is unlikely as Zambia is generally a very peaceful nation.

However, most PCVs live in rural areas and are not usually affected by load shedding. However, it does make it tough when you want to come to town, get some work done, send some emails, update your blog and take a shower (yes, load shedding affects our water supply as well). These are only a few of the consequences that we are currently seeing, and we expect more to follow. Just thought you’d like an update on the situation, and I hope to get up some new posts in the next couple weeks.